Samsung recently offered Apple a secret deal in Australia that could potentially allow the South Korea-based phone maker to put its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet on store shelves as soon as next week, The Wall Street Journal said Friday. Samsung’s lawyer David Catterns discussed the deal briefly in the Federal Court in Sydney but did not divulge the details of Samsung’s offer. However, Apple lawyer Stephen Burley suggested the iPhone maker may be interested in taking Samsung up on the offer. Samsung’s “inconvenience would be diminished and we would be comforted” if the deal was accepted, Burley explained. Apple and Samsung are locked up in multiple patent-related lawsuits around the globe, as Apple has accused Samsung of creating “copycat” versions of its iPad and iPhone. An injunction has not been leveled in Australia just yet, but Samsung has agreed not to sell or advertise the Galaxy Tab 10.1 until a judge rules whether or not Samsung is in violation of Apple’s patents.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may soon approve or reject mobile health applications. The government agency said on Wednesday that it is proposing to oversee the applications in an effort to ensure the apps perform as advertised and aren’t actually hurting users. “There are advantages to using medical apps, but consumers and health care professionals should have a balanced awareness of the benefits and risks,” FDA policy advisor Bakul Patel said. The administration hopes to approve and reject mobile applications that:

Are used as an accessory to an FDA-regulated medical device. For example, an app could enable a health care professional to view medical images on an iPad and make a diagnosis;

Transform a mobile platform into a regulated medical device. For example, an app that turns a smartphone into an electrocardiography, or ECG, machine to detect abnormal heart rhythms or determine if a patient is experiencing a heart attack.

“We want to hear from as many consumers, advocacy groups, health care professionals, and software creators and distributors as possible to help us finalize the proposed guidelines,” Patel said. The proposed guidelines will be published on Wednesday.

This morning while speaking in Boston, AT&T Mobility’s CEO Ralph de la Vega quipped that the net-neutrality agreement recently published by Verizon and Google was “good for the industry.” AT&T’s chief went on to say that the pact, “indicates that two companies from different industries can come together on a difficult issue.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation analyzed the joint proposal, saying: “It carves out exemptions from neutrality requirements for so-called ‘unlawful’ content, for wireless services, and for very vaguely-defined ‘additional online services.’ The definition of ‘reasonable network management’ is also problematically vague. As many, many, many have already pointed out, these exemptions threaten to completely undermine the stated goal of neutrality.” Whether you love or hate the Google/Verizon net-neutrality proposal, it has brought attention to this hot-button issue. An issue that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. What are your thoughts on the proposal? More →